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Please don't copy-paste. HN threads are for conversation, and that makes bad conversation.

My thoughts on this are complicated. I agree with the overall goal (namely, "HN threads are for conversation"), but disagree with the implication that this was anti-conversation--I find it disturbing that places that _should_ have conversation are so easily derailed.

I want there to be a good solution for this, but don't think we as a society have figured out a way to address deliberate manipulation that isn't worse than the problem.

Whataboutism, the new keyword to shutdown any discussion about how shitty the entire US political system is.

"US lobbying rules allow any company to manipulate people online that would be illegal in a rational democracy" --It's the American way!

"Russia does the same thing as US companies" --End of democracy as we know it

Now, what Russia did is wrong and illegal, but the discussion of saying that the solution to the problem is going after Russia and everything will be ok after that seems like manipulated talking points. All political ads and manipulation needs to be labeled or made illegal. Russia is just a little piece in a huge problem.

This.

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